m jim cramer. good morning. on this may day, coming up on "early today," breaking news overnight, an explosion at a florida jail leaves two inmates dead and scores of others injured. he's back. toronto's crack-smoking mayor rob ford is taking a break if his re-election campaign. reports of a new video could be why. clippers sweepstakes. today, nba owners meet for the first time on donald sterling while famous suitors are lining up. remembering veteran british actor bob hoskins. a heisman trophy winner accused of stealing crab legs. and a dog delay at a softball game. it is "early today," may 1st.

good morning. i'm richard lui. we begin with breaking news overnight. an apparent gas explosion at a jail in pensacola florida. two inmates are dead and more than 150 inmates and corrections officers have been hurt. the blast happened late last night and collapsed part of the building which was housing about 600 prisoners. a man who works at a nearby gas station saying it felt like an earthquake. the county facility is where inmates are held before and after their arraignments. we're hearing from nbc's gabe gutierrez on the ground at the facility that it was nearly flooded from storms over the past two days. he spoke with the county commissioner. >> i'm shocked. i'm surprised. i'm deeply saddened. our community has had a lot of tragedy in the last 24 hours with all of the rain and all of the water and to come into the jail and find this out, we're just praying and we're hoping

for the best. >> pensacola, florida, hit a new record with rain with 20 inches, the most the city has seen in one day since the year 1880, by the way. it was one of the many areas across the country that we have been following that got hit hard by severe weather in recent days. rushing waters flooded many roadways forcing drivers to leave their cars stranded in some areas. in baltimore, the heavy rain caused an entire street to collapse into a sinkhole, swallowing several cars along the way. many areas are trying to recover from the rough weather this morning. jay gray has more. >> reporter: rushing floodwaters have torn apart roadways, stranded drivers and swallowed entire communities. the panhandle has seen some of the worst rain and pensacola, close to 20 inches in just 24 hours. >> we have been through tropical storms and hurricanes like you know like ivan and dennis back-to-back in 2004 and '5 and we still do not have this much

water. >> it is touching down. >> reporter: in other places, it has been wind, not the water, battering communities. tornadoes ripped through the deep south leaving a trail of devastation that stretches for miles. >> we lost it all. we'll be fine. we'll get it all. >> reporter: now it is communities like tupelo begin to clean up and try to come back, they're dealing not only with the physical damage here, but the emotional scars that the storms left behind. keep in mind, there are people out there working right now that are just in shock. you know, their lives have been destroyed and in many cases they lost loved ones and friends and neighbors. >> reporter: but clinging to the spirit and resolve they will need through a long and difficult recovery. jay gray, nbc news, tupelo, mississippi. >> more later from bill karins on the weather today and going into the rest of the week. now, to a committee of nba owners meeting today for the first time. they'll be taking the first step toward forcing donald sterling

out as owner of the l.a. clippers over the racist remarks he made. sterling is not going out with a fight, though. a league executive tells the new york daily news that sterling plans to sue the league here if the owners force him to sell. nbc's joe fryer with more details. >> reporter: donald sterling has remained silent since the nba commissioner banned him from the league for life saying he made offensive remarks about african-americans in audio recordings posted online. if sterling fights to keep the clippers, experts say it could be a tough legal battle. >> the commissioner is acting within the four corners of the nba institution bylaws. courts are not going to want to intervene. >> reporter: if sterling does sell, a number of big names have been mentioned as possible new owners. the team of oprah winfrey, music mogul david geffen and larry ellison said she would be interested in buying the franchise. but first 75% of the league's 30 owners minute vote to remove sterling as owner. >> i spoke to several owners,

and i have their full support. >> reporter: a vast majority of their teams have issued statements of support including the bobcats' michael jordan who applauded silver's swift and decisive response. >> it is going to be 29 and up. 29-1 if the sterling family or the representatives are able to vote. >> reporter: meanwhile, an attorney for v. stiviano, the woman heard in the recordings, said his client never had a romantic relationship with sterling, adding she's very saddened that the nba did what they did. stiviano's attorney said a third party was present when those tapes were made in september, but they won't say who. joe fryer, nbc news, los angeles. and ucla returned a $425,000 gift and is rejecting a $300 million pledge from sterling's charitable foundation saying he does not share the school's core values. now to people in southern california returning to their homes this morning after an enormous fire east of los angeles forcing mandatory

evacuations. that fire spread to about a thousand acres in a matter of hours. a high fire risk continues today. toronto mayor rob ford taking a break from the campaign trail to get help for substance abuse. the news comes after reports from the toronto mail and globe of a second video of mayor ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine. nbc news has not verified the authenticity of the video. a similar clip was released about a year ago and set off a firestorm for ford's office in the months following. ford was filmed numerous times in public where he appeared impard ai impaired and erratic. in a statement, he says this is one of the most difficult times in my life. i have a problem with alcohol and the choices i have made while under the influence. i have struggled with this for some time. labor rallies are taking place across the globe today as part of may day. here at home, workers suffered a blow yesterday after the senate struck down a bill to raise the federal minimum wage. president obama is accusing republicans of abandoning the middle class.

republicans argue a wage hike could slow hiring at a time when job growth is already sluggish. the bill was one of the president's top legislative priorities. it would have gradually raised the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. >> by preeventing even a vote on this bill, they prevented a raise for 28 million hard working americans. they said no to helping millions work their way out of poverty. they told americans, like the ones who are here today, that you're on your own. without even looking them in the eye. >> well, somebody who works hard for his money all the time, every time i say, you know, during storm periods like this, that guy work hard for his money, you would say, what, like i don't normally? >> i mean, you always do. there is easier days than others. last week has not been easy. >> this year has been quite a year for you. >> winter season and everything. and who knows what's next. we get a break after this across the country. let's start off and look at recapping this just very

destructive april storm. this goes back 72 hours. this is 72 hours worth of storms. it only goes from nebraska to wisconsin in three days. that's why we had the lingering problems. in all, here is the bottom line. this appears to be -- it appears to be our first billion dollar weather disaster of the year. 39 deaths have been reported. most of those from the tornadoes, couple from flooding, couple fallen trees. 79 tornadoes, two of those were ef-4s, very high on the intensity scale. 1 in 200 year flood in pensacola, florida. 24 inches of snow on the back side of the storm and blizzard conditions in the black hills of south dakota. i call it quite the storm. may end up being the storm of the year. yesterday's high temperatures are nothing to sneeze at. 91 in downtown l.a. 90 in san francisco. one of the warmest days of the year. even going forward it will be one of the warmest days of the

year. we were one of the warmest spots in the country in southern california. we had the fire. today will be very warm in l.a. a red flag warning in effect, very high fire dang, slightly cooler in san francisco, but, you know, what a weather pattern in the last couple of days. that's your nati >> we cool it off in west, slowly over the next couple of days, to return to a normal weather pattern across the nation this weekend. >> you can't beat all those cities being so sunny at the same time. just ahead what brought l.a.x. to a screeching halt. plus, china is about to overtake the u.s. as the world's largest -- you fill in the blank there. we'll tell you what it is next.

welcome back. new concerns over oil tanker trains, one derails and explodes yesterday along the james river in virginia. it also leaked tens of thousands of gallons of oil into the river. no one was injured there. one former official calling this another national wake-up call over the need for safer oil tanker trains. >> flights at l.a.x. are back in the air. a computer glitch causing a compete ground stoppage yesterday. in all, more than 500 flights were affected. china is on the verge of overtaking the u.s. this year as the world's biggest economy. that's according to a new report from the international comparison agency. india is the third largest economy ahead of japan. british actor bob hoskins died. he was nominated for a best actor academy award for his part in the 1986 film "mona lisa." you might know him from "who framed roger rabbit." he died after a bout with

pneumonia. bob hoskins was 71. jameis winston has ticketed or was ticketed for of all things stealing that, crab legs. $32 worth. the florida state stars with accused late last year of sexual assault, but was not officially charged by police. as for the crab legs, well, the 20-year-old says he just forgot to pay for them. bertha coombs has the business report. good morning, bertha. >> stock closed out april with gains. the dow jones industrial average, the third straight monthly gain. the nasdaq fell for the second straight month. looking for data today on unemployment, consumer income and spending, and earnings from exxonmobil. facebook introducing new privacy features letting users limit how much of their personal information is seen by third

person sites and apps. facebook is also testing an anonymous log-in. tatoes rejoice. hulu is launching an ad that will allow you to order pizza from pizza hut from within the ad. it could be expanded to other advertisers in the future, because that's what we need, one less reason to get up off the couch. >> fried chicken and soda, we would be all set. the latest on the nhl and nba playoffs and the rest of your sports. we got that coming up.

this morning on "today," it is a british invasion on the plaza. bastille performs their hit single "pompeii." we take you to sports. another nba shake-up. mike d'antoni stepping down, even though they had the worst season in over half a century, even though it is only the third time in 38 seasons, they did not make the playoffs, d'antoni wanted an extra year on his contract. he didn't get it. so he resigned. to the hard wood, houston stays alive. it is fourth quarter, 12-0 run, takes down portland. dwight howard and jeremy lin played big, 43 points combined.

leads houston to a 108-98 win. portland leads the series, 3-2. san antonio also with a 3-2 series lead over dallas now. a new dad only hours before tip-off, tony parker led san antonio 23 points and the win, 109-103. down by 26, brooklyn claws back against toronto. brooklyn down by two, seconds left. they miss the free throw on purpose to get the rebound, but they missed the pass and the shot. yep. toronto 115-113, leading three games to two. i believe he's a good man, but it is time for this good man to act, remove the hateful term from the group. >> he went to the owner of the

washington redskins to change the team's name. many native americans consider redskins a racial insult. new york and philadelphia, the playoff series, so intense, even the fans slugging it out. that was during game six tuesday. wednesday's game was a little less raucous. new york scores two goals early on. philadelphia only adds one goal. new york undefeated in game seven matchups now at the garden. they're on to the next round. los angeles gets their own game seven win. the 5-1 win over san jose makes them only the fourth team after losing the first three games to win a series. a pit bull desperate for a game of fetch interrupts a college softball game, stealing the ball and players glove there, loses it, one is not enough. i'll get another one. i'll take that one, thank you. the owner gets him off the field. no one wanted to get close. look at the foul ball catch in cincinnati. watch dad. raises his hand, with toddler in

tow. no sweat says the former college baseball player because he's done it before. "early today" is brought to you by touch of gray mustache and beard. get the look you want. >> done it before on the field that is. judge judy goes to night court. pharrell williams dishes on how he originally gave his hit song happy to another artist. we'll tell you who, next.

welcome back. i can make a pretty good argument this will be the warmest temperature map i may show all year for the west. temperatures about 20 to 30 degrees above normal in many cases. 87 in portland. 98 in l.a. of course, the desert will get hotter during the summer. that's not the rule for you.

but for the coastal cities, that's the i-5 corridor, very warm. we return to normal type conditions this time of year as we head towards the weekend. unfortunately in the northwest, that means unsettled weather. we drop your temperatures about 25 degrees, add the clouds and showers. and the desert, you heat up like you're supposed to, nearly 100 in phoenix over the upcoming weekend. just nothing normal about the weather lately. >> so well said. you go up and down the 5, you don't see this sort of weather until you get to october, september. yeah, yeah. >> this time of year. >> we'll take it. "pitch perfect 2" adding another academy award nominee to the bellas. hi hailee steinfeld, elizabeth banks couldn't be happier tweeting lace up your dancing shoes and get down to baton rouge. pharrell williams revealed he was not the first musician to record the smash hit "happy." the track was originally given

to cee lo grown, but they pushed pharrell to record a version of his own and the rest is history. les moonves responded to pundits who claim stephen colbert has a liberal bias. moonves stated at a conference on monday that colbert is much more moderate than people think he is. and tv's highest paid star will make her primetime debut later this month. judge judy sheindlin will be in a special that will examine new court cases and her rise to daytime tv stardom. she is one wealthy person, though. >> i didn't even understand how wealthy she was until i found out. number one show. >> i know, yes. >> every local station bids on her show and she's cashing in. >> it is a staple. so true. i'm richard lui. this is "early today." we hope it is just your first stop of the day right here on nbc.

leading the news in the washington post, hundreds of kidnapped nigerian school girls reportedly sold as brides to militants for $12, relatives say. the post cautions it could not independently verify those claims. the girls were taken by armed militants from their dormitory in mid-april. on nbcnews.com, new york teen accepted to eight ivy league school picks yale. he was blown away by the music program on campus and the travel opportunities. i wonder how folks at harvard feel about that choice. other stories we're following now, awful news out of syria, activists say a syrian fighter jet attacked a school in

a city of aleppo. the students and teachers at the school were reportedly preparing an exhibition of children's drawings depicting the country at war. 150,000 people died since the civil war there began. a red ball of flame here, bursting into the skies over russian military warehouse yesterday. russian officials say ten people died trying to flee. no word on what actually caused the fire. and the city of portland, oregon, will not be flushing those 35 million gallons of water down the drain at the end of the day. they caught this teenager urinating in the drinking water in the reservoir there two weeks ago and feared the supply might be contaminated. the tests came up clean. but they're still going to move the supply to an unfilled reservoir to see how long its quality can last. do you remember the lionel richie song "dancing on the ceiling." there is a new house in shanghai where you can do just that. did somebody get the plans upside down? what happened there? polish architects built a

two-story house upside down. people can walk through rooms and have furniture and appliances that are above them. and it has become quite a hot ticket. only a thousand visitors are allowed in per day. good set for the exorcist or something, what do you think? >> yes, down in orlando, ripley's believe it or not has a building upside down similar to that. >> like this one? >> the inside is right side up, but the outside. in 1992, rodney king appealed appeal ed appeared in public to appeal for calm uttering these words. >> i just want to say, you know, can we all get along? can we get along? can we stop making it horrible for -- for the older people and the kids? >> takes us back.

i'm richard lui with bill karins. thanks for watching "early today." have a great thursday.

good morning, everyone. it is 4:30 in the morning, i'm scott mcgrew. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon. let's check that forecast with christina loren, another hot one? >> look where we are kicking off theday. temperatures in the mid-60s along the peninsula. 61 degrees here in the south bay and it's balmy out there. there's good news. we got through the worst part of the heat wave and just a touch cooler and the cooling kicks into high gear as we move into the weekend and maybe a little bit of shower activity. right now, let's check your drive and say good